Group Work on Themes in Crumbs from the Table of Joy

Group 1: Coming-of-Age

Victoria Guillot, Rodrigo Castro Vales, Emilie Pee dit Grabet, and Marc Chatagnon

 

  1. “Down home, smart meant you got homework done in time. Not so smart in… Brooklyn.”- Act 1, Page 10

 

  1. “Whole school thinks I’m a communist. It’s all your fault, ya know.”- Act 1, Page 35

 

  1. “Bakery? Imagine a life in the bakery by his side with no greater expectation than for the bread to rise.”- Epilogue, Page 82

 

  1. “I don’t know that that’s what I want to do.”- Epilogue, Page 83

 

  1. “But today I’m just riffing and walking as far as these feet will take me.”- Epilogue, Page 85

 

Group 2: 

  • it upset that white teacher and she seemed like a smart lady. P36
  • and told him to stop mingling with the Jews at his job and everything would be all right p35
  • the boss keeps calling me “the country nigger,” in front of the other men p77
  • She white! P50
  • You really thought you could marry a white woman and enter the Kingdom of heaven ? P73
  • We’re the only colored people on that Block p56
  • “What it like living up there with a white lady?” “She make you scrub the floors?” “She really blonde?” “Hear they smell like a wet dog when their hair gets wet?” “She a Nazi like Adolph Hitler?”p57

Group 4: Clothing/Appearance/Cinema

 

cinema -« blue flickering lights » mentioned a lot in stage directions ; cinema’s lights 

-ernestine saying multiple times in the play « in the movies.. » referring to how easy everything is solve in movies,, problems/conflicts are gone at the end of it.

clothing: « our dresses were sewn with love » , « a sorry pair of shoes[…] » & « i got me a new pair of shoes »

appearance:his appearance is always neat and well assembled, it’s my little subversive mission to outdress them whenever possible 

 no hablol espagnol

 

Group 5: Addiction and religion as an escape

p41) Lily: I didn’t drink here. I drank before I got here. 

(p38)A very drunk and disheveled Lyli enters. 

 

Group 3:  The bilingual 

 

Quote:

  • “Whole school thinks I’m a communist. It’s all your fault, y’a know.” (Page 35) 

 

  • “Ernestine stands in a spotlight wearing her white graduation gown, with the ragged lace border around the collar. She holds a diploma in her hand.” (Page 82) 

 

  • “I don’t care what it say, but it upset that white teacher and she seemed like a smart lady” (Page 36)

 

“Im not Darling Angel, I’m Ernestine Crump, it says so on my diploma

 

  • ”They…them… the gals laughed at us the first day at school, with our country braids and simple dresss my mommy had sewn.” (Page 10

General Question Thesis Statement workshopping

To what extent does James make Dr Sloper a frightening character?

Thesis statements proposed by groups in class (we marked in bold which elements we thought were the strongest in the thesis statement):

 

In Henry James’ novel Washington Square, James makes Dr Sloper a frightening character through his rude treatment of Morris, his systematic rejection of Catherine’s demands, and his sexist attitude.

 

James makes Dr Sloper a very frightening character through his relationship with Catherine, his sexist point of view, and his wickedness towards Morris.

 

In Henry James’ novel Washington Square, James uses interior monologue, thought vs dialogue, and             to make Dr Sloper a cold-hearted, stubborn and pessimistic character.

 

James makes Dr Sloper a slightly frightening character through the way he talks to Catherine, how he wants to control her, and the way he has satisfaction in her suffering.

James makes Dr Sloper a cruel and authoritative character through his brutal and vicious thoughts, his cold-hearted reactions to Catherine’s struggle, and his hypocritical way of addressing people.

 

Proposed “winner” rewrite of the thesis:

 

In Henry James’ novel Washington Square, James shows how Dr Sloper is a cold-hearted, stubborn, and pessimistic character through his sexist point of view, his systematic rejection of Catherine’s demands, and his vicious thoughts of satisfaction in Catherine’s suffering. 

 

Extract Practice

The Doctor almost pitied her.  Poor Catherine was not defiant; she had no genius for bravado; and as she felt that her father viewed her companion’s attentions with an unsympathising eye, there was nothing but discomfort for her in the accident of seeming to challenge him.  The Doctor felt, indeed, so sorry for her that he turned away, to spare her the sense of being watched; and he was so intelligent a man that, in his thoughts, he rendered a sort of poetic justice to her situation.

“It must be deucedly pleasant for a plain inanimate girl like that to have a beautiful young fellow come and sit down beside her and whisper to her that he is her slave—if that is what this one whispers.  No wonder she likes it, and that she thinks me a cruel tyrant; which of course she does, though she is afraid—she hasn’t the animation necessary—to admit it to herself.  Poor old Catherine!” mused the Doctor; “I verily believe she is capable of defending me when Townsend abuses me!”

And the force of this reflexion, for the moment, was such in making him feel the natural opposition between his point of view and that of an infatuated child, that he said to himself that he was perhaps, after all, taking things too hard and crying out before he was hurt.  He must not condemn Morris Townsend unheard.  He had a great aversion to taking things too hard; he thought that half the discomfort and many of the disappointments of life come from it; and for an instant he asked himself whether, possibly, he did not appear ridiculous to this intelligent young man, whose private perception of incongruities he suspected of being keen.  At the end of a quarter of an hour Catherine had got rid of him, and Townsend was now standing before the fireplace in conversation with Mrs. Almond.

“We will try him again,” said the Doctor.  And he crossed the room and joined his sister and her companion, making her a sign that she should leave the young man to him.  She presently did so, while Morris looked at him, smiling, without a sign of evasiveness in his affable eye.

“He’s amazingly conceited!” thought the Doctor; and then he said aloud: “I am told you are looking out for a position.”

“Oh, a position is more than I should presume to call it,” Morris Townsend answered.  “That sounds so fine.  I should like some quiet work—something to turn an honest penny.”

“What sort of thing should you prefer?”

“Do you mean what am I fit for?  Very little, I am afraid.  I have nothing but my good right arm, as they say in the melodramas.”

“You are too modest,” said the Doctor.  “In addition to your good right arm, you have your subtle brain.  I know nothing of you but what I see; but I see by your physiognomy that you are extremely intelligent.”

“Ah,” Townsend murmured, “I don’t know what to answer when you say that!  You advise me, then, not to despair?”

And he looked at his interlocutor as if the question might have a double meaning.  The Doctor caught the look and weighed it a moment before he replied.  “I should be very sorry to admit that a robust and well-disposed young man need ever despair.  If he doesn’t succeed in one thing, he can try another.  Only, I should add, he should choose his line with discretion.”